Scrapping of madrasas in Assam exposes religious bias and stereotypes

Fifteen-year-old Hafizur Rahman is confused about his future. A student of Class 10 at Howrarpar Senior Madrasa in Assam’s Dhubri district, Rahman aspires to be an Islamic scholar and teach at a madrasa.

He, however, has put his dreams on hold for the time being after the Assam government enacted a law to convert all pre-senior (elementary to Class 6 or Class 8) and senior (from Class 6 to the higher secondary level) government-run madrasas into general schools under the state board.

“It seems I have to reset my priorities now as I am not very sure whether I will be able to pursue Fadilul Ma’rif (FM) and Mumtazul Muhaddithin (MM) courses,” he says.

FM is a graduation level theological degree course while MM is a post-graduate course.